Nokia 6680, 6681: First look

February 14th was a great day both for mobile phones manufacturers and users. Most of the prestigious phone manufacturers presented several dozens of new mobile phones at the 3GSM congress at Cannes.
Nokia 6680 and 6681: smart mobiles, just as expected

There is no point in talking about the 6680 and 6681 models separately for they are nearly identical. The 6680 Nokia is a bit better equipped - it works pretty well in third-generation networks and hence has an extra VGA photo camera placed on its front side. As widely known, video talks are already a common feature of these nets.
Regarding the specifics of these two phones, they are slightly different in terms of weight and height. However, without any measuring devices, one would hardly recognize the difference of not even three grams in the weight and some one millimeter in height. Although their size and weight are somewhat higher in comparison to other common phones, they perfectly fit into the extended family of smart mobile phones. Holding the phones is very comfortable - the slightly bigger size and weight of these phones being only an asset.
Nokia has confessed - even not directly - that apart from the praising coming form the fans and style users concerning its previous smart phones, it has also received a plenty of complaints. In particular, users, who are interested in phone's work features and functionality, and therefore expect a rather modest and representative design, which does not suppress functionality, happened not to accept the Nokia stylish cries ala Nokia 7610. Nokia has made an effort to satisfy this group of clients and has made a successful step with launching the 6680 and 6681 models. The telephone is easy to manage, it does not provoke unnecessarily, nor does it lose its unusual character, originality and a doze of peculiarity.
Even though the phones we obtained for a closer look were not final versions of the new model and they had by that moment happened to pass through plenty of journalist hands, the covers did not give out any irregular sound. The level of the mounting work was very good. What drew my attention were the metal elements - the side-stripes and the camera lens margin are made of stainless steel.

Handling, keypad

Judging from to the pictures I could guess the keypad would be configured in the mode of the 6670 model. And I was not mistaken. I found the same transparent plastic material, which is moreover quite hard and not too slippery. It gives a solid impression and the transparent keys are quite spectacular as far as the design is concerned.

The main control panel is a five-way navigation button. It is big enough, so one's thumb could easily lay into its slightly deepened hollow. One feels sure when managing the device, also due to the fact that the confirm-button does not tend to default aside. Compared to the 7610, 6670 and 6630 models, I consider the navigation button of the 6680/6681 the most comfortable of all. I felt to be a bit at a loss regarding the sideways context buttons. Why are they so unnecessarily big? Why not, though, at least this makes them easy to deal with.
The chromium-plated functional keys placed on the sides of the numeral block, however, seemed to me relatively narrow. On the other side they are raised from the cover surface a bit, so I did not have a single problem when pressing them. An exception are the small correcting keys in the right bottom part of the keypad, which I had to always aim at very carefully. That holds true for the pressing of the C key, in particular, for I happened to often press the nearby key as well.

Thanks to the cascade-like configuration of the lines the numeral part is easily recognizable at a touch. I noticed a certain degree of resistance when pressing the keys, but this does not have an impact on their effortless functionality. They are big enough and provide a proper feedback supported by a muffled click. Only at pressing the key 2 I would sometimes brush against the down arrow of the navigating button.
I noticed the lack of the volume buttons on the phone sides immediately. Instead, you will find the Push to talk button on the left side of the phone. It is relatively small and a bit hidden. Nevertheless it is easy to push for it is not so highly raised from the surface. I was given a similar impression by the turn-off button placed on the opposite side.
262K colors but don't expect miracles

I was quite anxious to test the display. Will 262 thousand colors have an impact onto the image quality in comparison with the older Nokia models, which had 65 thousand colors? Fortunately, I had the opportunity to directly compare the new Nokia with the 6630 model. After a long investigation and examining I started considering a visit to the eye doctor's - why do I see nothing? I could not find any remarkable difference and my final evaluation was to a big extent based on my subjective feeling, which was in favor of the new model.

Note: A Nokia representative admitted that the bigger amount of colors is to attract more customers rather than improve the image quality of the display.
The future belongs to the photo mobiles

Nokia believes in the promising future of the camera phones and therefore has put more efforts into improving the picture quality and options. Due to that with the new 6680/6681 model we can finally set brightness levels or adjust the color balance when shooting. We are to count with further improving of the picture quality in the future, but we should expect no run after mega pixels, says Nokia. Its strategy lies in offering the customers the most faithful and best quality photographs a mobile phone is able to take. However, the 1.3 mega pixels resolution is to be kept.
Some testing photographs of 10x15 cm size were taken and then viewed in a Kodak photo lab to proof the quality level. Without going into details I have to confess was really pleased with the quality of the result. With some exceptions the focusing was satisfying as well as the colors. At a closer look, however, the insufficient amount of pixels was noticeable. Nevertheless, it was a practical illustration of the fact that shooting with such a mobile phone makes sense


source:
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_6680-review-28.php